Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/217

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 199 ing and cementing the dependence of the provinces on Cli A i the capital, by every means which covdd bind the in- ' ' terest or prejudices of any part of his subjects''. Amidst the fi-equent revohitions of the empire, the Peace and christians still flourished in peace and prosperity ; and ||f°Jfg^"*^ notwithstanding a celebrated era of martyrs has been church deduced from the accession of Diocletian'', the new detian. system of policy introduced and maintained by the ^•'^• p,. .,,., 284—303. wisdom of that prmce, contmued, during more than eighteen years, to breathe the mildest and most liberal spirit of religious toleration. The mind of Diocletian himself was less adapted indeed to specidative enquiries than to the active labours of war and government. His prudence rendered him averse to any great innovation ; and though his temper was not very susceptible of zeal or enthusiasm, he always maintained an habitual re- gard for the ancient deities of the empire. But the leisure of the two empresses, of his wife Prisca, and of Valeria his daughter, permitted them to listen with more attention and respect to the truths of Christianity, which in every age has acknowledged its important obligations to female devotion^ The principal eunuchs, Lucian^ and Dorotheus, Gorgonius and Andrew, who attended the person, possessed the favour, and governed the household, of Diocletian, protected by their power- ful influence the faith which they had embraced. Their example was imitated by many of the most considerable ofl[icers of the palace, who, in their respective stations, had the care of the imperial ornaments, of the robes, of the furniture, of the jewels, and even of the private P Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. vii. c. 30. We are entirely indebted to him for the curious story of Paul of Samosata. q The era of martyrs, which is still in use among the Copts and the Abyssinians, must be reckoned from the twenty-ninth of August, A. ]). 284 ; ais the beginning of the Elgyptian year was nineteen days earlier than the real accession of . Diocletian. See Uisserlalion Preliminaire a I'Art de veri- fier les Dates. ■■ The expression of Lactantius, (de iI. P. c 15.) " sacrificio pollui coegit," implies their antecedent conversion to the faith ; but does not seem to justify the assertion of Mosheim, (p. 912.) that they had been privately baptized. =■ lI. de Tillimont (Memoires Ecclesiastiques, torn. v. part i. p. 1 1, 12.) has quoted from ilie Spicilegium of Dom Luc d'Acheri, a very curious in- struction which bishop Theonas composed for the use of Lucian.